The Dem filibuster that blocked John Bolton’s nomination to be U.N. ambassador on the Senate floor yesterday offers some interesting subtexts. The media seems particularly interested in the fight upsetting the comity that resulted from the Gang of 14’s compromise earlier this week.
But let’s not lose sight of the fact that Bill Frist took on another important Republican challenge — and failed again.
When it came to judicial nominees, Frist’s nuclear option scheme and obstinate negotiating tactics led seven of his GOP colleagues to go around him and strike a deal with Dems. Frist had two specific goals in mind: up-or-down votes on all Bush judicial nominees and the elimination of judicial filibusters forevermore. He got neither and his leadership suffered a blow.
Yesterday, Dems made it clear they didn’t want to block Bolton’s confirmation permanently; they simply wanted the Bush administration to provide the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with information requested by Dems and Republicans on the panel. Harry Reid said, “We are not here to filibuster Bolton — we are here to get information.” Joe Biden, who’s led the opposition to Bolton, said, “I have absolutely no intention of preventing an up-or-down vote on Mr. Bolton.”
Indeed, according to the LA Times, Frist agreed that the Dems have a point.
According to a Frist aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the majority leader lobbied the administration to give Biden and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) access to the records sought by Bolton.
Previously, partial transcripts of the intercepted communications — with the names of U.S. officials edited out — had been shown to Roberts, the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, and to Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), the panel’s senior Democrat.
Democrats wanted to see the intercepts as well as the names of U.S. officials contained in them to judge whether Bolton had sought the information to bolster his position in bureaucratic struggles.
Predictably, the Bush gang wouldn’t show lawmakers unedited files and pushed Frist to ignore Dem demands and hold the confirmation vote anyway.
And once again, Frist couldn’t get the job done.
Keep in mind, Dems told Frist the filibuster was coming and explained he wouldn’t have the votes to stop it.
…Reid spokesman Jim Manley said the Democratic leader “told Senator Frist this afternoon he did not have the 60 votes needed, and urged him to consider holding off on the vote” while Biden and others pressed the administration for the requested documents.
So, what did Frist do? He held the vote anyway, failed to overcome the filibuster, handed the administration another setback, and kept the controversy surrounding Bolton in the news.
When Republicans threw Trent Lott overboard two years ago, Bush and other GOP leaders tapped Frist because he had a reputation for being smart and would be a friendlier face for the party on TV. When the GOP caucus grew to 55, Frist probably assumed his troubles were over and he’d get everything he asked for, all the while gearing up for a presidential campaign.
But this week reminds us of an inconvenient detail: Frist just isn’t a very good at being the Senate Majority Leader.
I wonder how long it will be before we start hearing grumblings and rumors in conservative circles about the need for a change….